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White-tailed eagle; at one moment there were 13 of them circling above Sõrve säär  (12.10.2012)

 

Clear and calm day at Sõrve säär. A day without wind at  Sõrve säär is something that I have almost never had before. But it was relatively quiet on the bird front too. The migrants were few and in the beautiful weather they too flew very high up. While some sparse snow fell from the sky in the early morning darkness, in the day the sun started to heat quite strongly which in turn speeded up the movements of broad-winged birds. Buzzards (Buteo buteo) for instance travelled in groups and at one moment  13 white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) appeared circling above the spit. Today there was a golden eagle (Aquilachrysaetos) among the eagles too, not an everyday visitor at Sõrve säär. Although no particularly hard migration was going on today we were outdoors the whole day. During the day we saw precisely 100 species at Sõrve säär, in the middle of October it is a quite nice achievement.

The nets were open too during the whole day but since there was no particular movement of birds we only succeeded to ring 76 birds during the day. Among late leavers two warblers got into the net, one a  reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus), but the second probably a  marsh warbler (Acrocephalus palustris). Since a marsh warbler in October  is quite a rarity in Estonia  I consulted more knowledgeable people for expert opinion. The bird was maybe slightly too brown for a marsh warbler but all measures were just right for a marsh warbler. In the next few days it will be clear if the netted bird was Estonia’s latest to leave marsh warbler.